646 CORKESPONDENCE, ETC. 



When it is remembered at what considerable expense the prepara- 

 tions are made for a season's fishing in these northern latitudes, and 

 that very many of the men, both masters and mariners, embark their 

 all in the enterprise, the serious character of these losses may be par- 

 tially understood. 



Instructions have been sent to the consuls to transmit fuller in- 

 formation on the subject, and this will be furnished you as soon as 

 it shall have been received. In the mean time it is deemed advisable 

 to instruct you to bring the matter to the attention of Her Majesty's 

 Government, and to request that it will cause an investigation to be 

 made into the alleged facts of the case, and to adopt such measures 

 as may be found necessary, not only to put an end to the evil, but also 

 to prevent a recurrence of acts which, in addition to the injuries and 

 losses to individuals, may have a tendency to complicate the good re- 

 lations which so happily subsist between this government and that 

 of Her Britannic Majesty. 



I am, &c., W. M. EVARTS. 



Mr. Welsh to Earl of Derby. 



LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES, 



London, March 19, 1878. 



MY LORD: I have the honor to acquaint your lordship that com- 

 plaints have reached the Department of State at Washington of seri- 

 ous interference with American fishermen engaged during the present 

 season in the herring fishery on the coast of Newfoundland, especially 

 in the neighborhood of Long Harbor. The complaints come from 

 various sources : first, from the United States consuls in that province ; 

 the consuls confining themselves, however, to general statements based 

 on representations made to them by fishermen immediately affected 

 at the time of the occurrences which form the grounds of the com- 

 plaints. Still more recently, however, these complaints have been 

 preferred in a more specific manner, supported by affidavits of the 

 masters of several fishing vessels owned and fitted out at Gloucester, 

 Mass. 



From these statements it appears that, about the 6th of January 

 last, no less than eight schooners from the above-named port, while 

 engaged in the herring fishery at and in the neighborhood of Long 

 Harbor, were attacked by the inhabitants to the number in one in- 

 stance of 60 men, and in another 200 or more, and their seines, which 

 were set, and in most cases full of fish, cut and destroyed, and the 

 fish in one case to the amount of 5,000 barrels, and in others only less 

 in quantity and value, scattered and run out to sea, resulting, besides 

 the great loss of property, in the vessels being obliged to return to 

 their home port in ballast, and also to- abandon their fishing enter- 

 prise for the season. 



When it is remembered at what considerable expense the prepara- 

 tions are made for a season's fishing in these northern latitudes, and 

 that very many of the men, both masters and mariners, embark their 

 all in the enterprise, the serious character of these losses may be 

 partially understood. 



